Traffic Engineering - New Directions for Energy Conservation

In the past one of the principal objectives of the road traffic engineer has been to reduce delays and travel times by attempting to design road system capacity and traffic control systems to improve the flow of peak period traffic. The onset of rapidly increasing petroleum prices (and consequent pressures to conserve liquid fuels) justifies a review of such traffic management objectives. Investigations reported in this paper show that improved traffic management for non-commuter periods (i.e. off-peak periods on most urban-roads) may be important as a strategy for fuel conservation. It is also argued that, as the real price of fuel rises, more expenditure can be justified on traffic measures which achieve fuel savings for off-peak travel. It is concluded that there is a case for review of Australian standards and practice guidelines for traffic control devices, and a challenge to develop more efficient and flexible techniques for traffic control.